


Abel and Cain Ain't Got Nothing On Us

by missmagoo



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Teen Wolf (TV), The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, Gen, Gen Work, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, Unhappy Ending, Violent Deaths, kids killing kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:45:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmagoo/pseuds/missmagoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the 52nd Annual Hunger Games, Derek and Laura Hale make history as the first ever children of a Victor to participate in the games. They are also the 2nd pair of siblings to compete directly against one another in the games, and they suffer through endless comparisons that all the Hales wish they could escape, since nobody cares about 2nd place. Interest in the Games had been waning for the past few years, but Derek and Laura reignite the excitement, the drama, and the selfless patriotism that the Capitol strives to have the games represent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Abel and Cain Ain't Got Nothing On Us

**Author's Note:**

> Originally submitted to Full Moon Fic Challenge on Tumblr for January. It took me a bit to polish it up into a final draft!
> 
> Thanks to [bleep0bleep](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/) for the lightning-fast beta!

The Hale Family is known throughout Panem for their elite training facility for career tributes in District 2. The Hale Academy, run by family matriarch and Hunger Games Victor Talia Hale, is known for instilling it's pupils with discipline, skill, endurance, and fearlessness in the face of death. Every District 2 tribute of the past 15 years has been a Hale Academy trainee, as well as a significant number of District 1 tributes who are given special leave from the Capitol to train outside their home District. Hale Academy Alumni (coloquiolly known as Hale Hounds) who are not selected to participate in the Hunger Games are frequently employed as head Peacekeepers, high ranking military officers, and elite private security for esteemed members of the Capitol.

During the 52nd Annual Hunger Games, Derek and Laura Hale make history as the first ever children of a Victor to participate in the games. They are also the 2nd pair of siblings to compete directly against one another in the games, and they suffer through endless comparisons that all the Hales wish they could escape, since nobody cares about 2nd place. Interest in the Games had been waning for the past few years, but Derek and Laura reignite the excitement, the drama, and the selfless patriotism that the Capitol strives to have the games represent.

Sure, the commentators all rush to say, Talia could have submitted a different Volunteer in Derek's place (though it was Laura's last eligible year), had him compete another year and had a damn good chance at having both Derek and Laura become Hale Family Victors, but instead she Volunteered both in the same year! What excitement! What dedication to the integrity of the Games! What principle, to put forth your very best two fighters even knowing that it means one of your children will not come home alive! The Hales are truly an inspiration to all of Panem, the Capitol eagerly tells it's citizens and the people of the 12 Districts.

Laura and Derek are ranked number 1 and 2, respectively, in the pregame trials with no other competitor coming near their scores. They hold themselves apart during the evaluations, never engaging with the tributes from other districts. During training, Laura is energetic. Her excitement is palpable as she shows off her expertise with a wide array of weapons. She mocks the other tributes on the days they train together, making up degrading nicknames and catcalling at their failures. 

Derek holds himself further apart, never saying a word except to tersely answer his sister's occasional question. He splits his time equally between weapons training and survival skills, though it is clear to anyone that cares to watch that he is merely reviewing information that has long since been drilled into his head.

The crowds of the Capitol fawn over them, painting Laura as a beloved reincarnation of their mother reliving her glory days in the arena, and Derek as mysterious and handsomely tortured by some deep ennui that the public in the Capitol just can't puzzle out a reason for.

Derek's well-formed abs turn into eye candy for the Capitol for all that he's only 15. During the introductory interviews, the new Master of Ceremonies grins with his too-white teeth and asks if the audience can get a peek of his now famous physique. When Derek reluctantly lifts his shirt to reveal the defined muscles on his stomach, Caesar Flickerman tuts and has a flamboyantly dressed stage assistant carry out a pair of scissors.  She cuts off Derek's shirt with showy enthusiasm, her hands displaying his now-naked chest like it's some new product on the market. Derek spends the rest of the evening on stage half naked, and doesn't say a word.

When Caesar interviews Laura, he pries at the siblings' relationship, testing for weakness. "You know," he says, his jovial face quickly dropping to a mask of seriousness, "There is only one Victor. Either you or your brother will not come home. How do you feel about that?"

Laura stands tall, and tells the crowd, "It would shame us both if Derek and I are not the last two tributes standing. In the end, it will be an honor to face my brother in battle for the greater glory of Panem!" She raises a fist, and the crowd cheers wildly. When the interview ends, she moves to stand beside Derek and, linking her fingers with his, raises their hands in the air as the crowd chants, "HALE! HALE! HALE!"

When the lead-up ends and the games begin, it comes as a relief. This, after all, is what they've trained for. The siblings attack the competition in a vicious slaughter, Laura cackling gleefully and Derek executing his peers with stoic determination. Within an hour, the field has been narrowed from 24 to a mere 12, and Derek and Laura find themselves alone, making camp. They have made no effort to ally themselves with anyone but each other, but in the highly respected opinion of the Head Gamemaker in his interview with Caesar, they have no need to.

Laura pushes them forward over the next two weeks, guiding them over the rocky terrain, checking in caves for signs of life, always on the lookout for other tributes while Derek takes care of keeping the two of them alive, making fires, hunting game, and stearing Laura off some ill-advised berries.

The game-makers have overcorrected this year, giving too much opportunity for cover in the wake of last year's spectacular failure of a desert terrain. The victor was crowned a mere 23 minutes after the start of the games as the vast and open sandy dunes made moving quickly difficult and finding cover impossible. This year the games drag on, the tributes who survived the Cornucopia scattering and avoiding one another far too easily.

Laura remains undeterred in her hunt for the ten tributes that escaped the Hales the initial massacre, gleefully calling for each one by the absurd nicknames she had made up for her competition in training. So far, they've found 5, and heard cannons sound for another 3.

"Hey there, Virgin Suicide!" she calls to the pretty blonde girl from District 6, who doesn't seem to have much of a killer instinct but whose wilderness survival skills are apparently pretty good if the camp they've stumbled on is anything to go by. "You've lasted longer than I expected, but you know what they say about all good things!"

The girl is frozen in the headlights, not even trying to make a move until Laura steps forward with her machete in hand. Her flight instinct kicks in too late as Laura grabs her by the hair and slices clean across her throat.

She grins at her brother, covered in the girls blood, and boasts, "That's nine."

He rolls his eyes and huffs at her. "The one who ran off a cliff trying to get away from you doesn't count." he says dryly. "And neither does that boy you axed after I'd already made a kill shot."

"He wasn't dead yet, baby brother, it's totally still my kill." Laura huffs, "Besides, what's your count? I'm still totally ahead of you either way."

"I can't count, you know that." Derek says dryly, and they smirk in remembrance of Caesar's insistance in casting him as the pretty-but-dumb brawn of the Hale duo.

Laura swaggers off, then calls over her shoulder, "Hurry up, sour puss! I think I hear a waterfall up ahead!"

Sure enough, they climb over the next ridge to find a breathtaking landscape, with water cascading into an inviting pool. Laura shrieks happily, and starts shedding her weapons and clothes as she rushes towards it.

"Wait!" Derek says, grabbing his sister's arm. He tosses one bloody glove into the center of the pool, and a swarm of mutated piranhas leap to devour it. Laura pouts at the pool in disappointment, the top of her uniform wetsuit already hanging around her waist. 

"Everything sucks." Laura declares. "Can't even get a decent swim without those pesky environmental obstacles."

"C'mon" Derek nudges her toward a path that runs up the cliff side. About half-way up, a jutting rock formation catches the water briefly before it rushes over the edge and down into the piranha infested pool. Laura scrabbles ahead of Derek and shucks the rest of her uniform, throwing herself naked under the falls. 

"Ugh." she cries, "This feels amazing!" She splashes and leaps about for a few minutes, until she catches sight of a silver delivery pod floating their way. She leans out over the edge to grab it and brings it back to Derek. It opens to reveal a fashionable but modest women's swimsuit in Laura's size. Derek snags the card and reads in a dry (and terrible) imitation of their mother:

"My darling girl, please cover your bits. You're embarrassing your brother on national television."

"It does not say that!" Laura yelps, lurching to wrestle the card out of Derek's grasp. Derek laughs and uses his (still fairly new) height advantage to keep the card out of his sister's hands. She gets it eventually (by resorting to tickling, sisters are the worst), and though it's wet and wrinkled she can still make out that though her mother's words were slightly more circumspect, the meaning was essentially the same.

"Well," Laura huffs, "Just for that I think I'll finish the games naked!"

"Try it and I will push you off this cliff into a pool of hungry piranhas." Derek says, not looking up from where he's been fastidiously cleaning both their weapons.  

"Nah," Says Laura, ruffling his hair, "cause I'd pull you down with me, and then that boy from 10 would win and  _then_  where would we be?"

 "Sleeping with the fishes?" Derek asks mildly

"Don't make jokes," Laura admonishes, "you're bad at it."

They move on, not long after that.

Late that afternoon, they find the boy from 10. He’s younger than Derek, thirteen at most. He has floppy brown hair and big brown eyes, and he begs them to have mercy. They do, and kill him quickly.

“I hate it when they beg.” Laura confesses bitterly. “Don’t they get that it’s a game? Our whole lives are nothing but a game!" She shouts at the boy's body,  "It’s no use crying when you don’t end up a winner.”

Then she sighs, and bends down to wipe her blade clean in the leaves and dirt and patchy shrubbery. Derek says nothing, but does the same.

“Now that that’s done, we can start preparing for the real games.” She says stiffly, “Tomorrow at dawn. The cornucopia. Be there or be a big fat chicken.”

Derek bwoks at her, an absurd sound that makes her huff a laugh and lay down her weapons and hug him.

“I love you, Der.” She whispers in his ear. He hugs her tight, and whispers back in a rough voice, “I love you, too.”

Then they step back, pick up their weapons, and for the first time since the Hunger Games began, the Hales go their separate ways.

Dawn comes early, no doubt rushed by game makers eager for the final confrontation, Hale versus Hale.

The cornucopia is on a rocky plateau in roughly the center of the arena. Both Hales arrived in the night, making camp on opposite sides of their agreed upon fighting ring. The pre-dawn hours have brought both Hales a wealth of gifts from sponsors, including weapons, armor, an extravagant meal from their family. Laura happily devours her favorite foods, but Derek’s meal remains largely untouched.

Neither makes a move toward the other until the sun is rising. When it does, they stand and face each other. Laura brings her machete to her temple and sketches a mocking salute to her brother. In response, he delivers a formal fencing salute with his broadsword.

The circle each other several times, slowly winding closer together, until they snap, nearly simultaneous, and rush toward each other. They block and parry every blow the other delivers for minutes on end, neither stopping their attacks or showing any signs of tiring, until Laura’s blade swings wild after a block and catches Derek just above the elbow.

“First blood, baby brother.” She grins at him as they back up a few paces, taking a moment to catch their breath.

“But not a killing blow.” He retorts, then attacks again. They dance around each other, moving too fast for the game makers to tell who’s winning. They both know that they’re too evenly matched, that this will only end when one of them slips and makes the mistake that will kill them. They are silent, focused on the fight with the same competitive edge that drove them both through every sparring match of their childhood. They don't allow themselves to think of what will happen when the match finally ends.

It takes a long time, both of them wearing down their hard-earned endurance, before Laura takes a bad step backwards onto a stone that rolls out from under her and drops her to one knee. She slashes wildly as she falls, cutting a deep gash in her brother’s thigh as her knee slams down the hard rock below her.

With a wild cry, Derek slams his broadsword into her skull, meeting her eyes just as the life blinks out of them.

Derek collapses beside his sister, and watches their blood pool together, seeping from her head and his leg into a puddle between them. The world has gone fuzzy, and he feels himself growing weaker as he loses more and more blood. Above him, trumpets blare and he is announced the proud Victor of the 52nd annual Hunger Games, and Derek laughs (though only in his head, he is too weak to force the action) because Laura landed her killing blow first, and won't she be so mad that he won on a technicality. He is unconscious before the hovercraft is in sight, and dead before the medics can do anything to revive him.

The Capitol needs a Victor, so Talia Hale, Victor of the 29th Annual Hunger Games, founder of Hale Academy, District 2’s most respected training facility for Career Tributes and military and paramilitary personnel, and loving mother of fallen Victor Derek Hale, goes on tour on her son’s behalf.

“I could not be more proud of my children,” She tells the crowds across Panem, “and in a way, I consider both Derek and Laura to be the victors of this year’s Hunger Games. They both fought fiercely to the end for the love of this great country, and no death could have been more honorable. I want to thank you, citizens of Panem, for celebrating with me the lives of my two children, whose noble sacrifice serves to cement our bond as a nation! I hope to one day see my youngest daughter, Cora, follow in her sibling’s footsteps and claim victory in the Hunger Games.”

In the private train carriage where Talia collapses in grief between Districts, she takes a call from President Snow, who congratulates her on another moving speech and reminds her that her continued pride in her fallen son and daughter is the only thing keeping their still living sister alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Come play with me on Tumblr. [Whee!](http://everythingisshwarma.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And yes, both tributes killed on screen are teen wolf characters I had in mind. But I left them intentionally nameless just incase you didn't want to see them killed.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Pack is Stronger as a Whole](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4182147) by [MayAChance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayAChance/pseuds/MayAChance)




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